The Brotherhood of a Traveling Fur Coat

This story takes place in NY. A friend of mine and her boyfriend came to visit me on the East Coast from the sunny California during the month of February. Just to paint you a picture, I haven’t heard as many “It’s so cold here, I wanna go home” comments in such a short period of time from anyone as I did that day from my sun spoiled friends, ever. Mind you I tried to do everything in my power from blanket bound naps on a very comfortable bed to gourmet hot dogs to drinking baileys from the bottle in my car in order to keep them satisfied/warm, and I did a pretty good for a while there but ultimately I think they were pretty much ready to leave before they even got here.

But this story is not about my friends’ whining due to climate related discomfort. It’s about the many hands my coat went through before finally making it back home into mine and the mild distress it caused between three completely unrelated people during. For the sake of the story, I feel like personification is in order. The Fur Coat will from now on be referred to as She.

GETTING THERE – The “adventure” started when I decided to take my Fur Coat out of its warm home in the closet (She lives in NJ btw) and take her with me to NY to keep me company. It was her first night out in a while so despite having to sit through a long Uber ride in traffic she was kind of excited to get all cozy with me in the cold. So we get to NY. The first thing my friends and I do of course is settle our asses at the bar for some happy juice. I don’t know if you know this, but happy juice doesn’t just make you happy, it apparently also makes you forgetful and selfish. Needless to say, by the time we left the hotel for some real adventure, I was drunk/warm enough that I’d forgotten all about my furry friend and all the fun times I promised we were going to have together on the streets of New York. I completely abandoned her; just left her in the room all alone while I went off gallivanting in just a sweater and a scarf.

STAYING THERE – As you can imagine the drinking didn’t stop; it progressed. Mirror selfies and group pictures as well as elevator sing-alongs were involved. Before I knew it we were all exhausted and I took seeing my friend passed out on the bed as a sign that I should go home. So I said my goodbyes and bounced. I was still pretty drunk at that point, so I didn’t realize the absence of Fur Coat until the morning after. Naturally I felt bad for having neglected her like that; brought her all the way to NY just to leave her there. My friend made up for my mistake –took her out the next night and got lots of compliments, so that’s good. Then came the question of how she was supposed to make it home.. Luckily I have great friends.

THIRD PARTY – After having explored several options as to how we could get her back into my arms without disturbing others’ plans too much, we settled on an act of interception. Involving a third party was somewhat challenging given everyone’s time constraint and location, but it was better than leaving her at a hotel desk or taking her to LA with them. I called my friend in NY and explained the situation. Fortunately he was up for the task so I distributed all the needed contact information among my friends and seeing as how there wasn’t much else I could do from where I was, I sat back and waited for updates.

REUNION AT LAST – The friend that I called actually lives in Brooklyn, and let me tell you, traveling from there to a hotel in the middle of Manhattan is no easy task, nor is it a timely one. Let’s not forget that everyone was on a very tight schedule; my visitor friends were leaving in a matter of hours and my NY friend was between school and work with no access to a device that can get you from one place to another and back in a matter of seconds. Thankfully, he’s got friends of his own, who happen to be much closer to the hotel. So this friend of my friend, whose name I don’t even know, was kind enough and willing to help him help ME out. Contact info was exchanged once again, this time without my supervision because I didn’t even know this was happening until it was all done and over with. He came by, picked up my furry friend and due to further extenuating circumstances and inability to meet, got stuck babysitting her for another few weeks. Finally he was like “Dude, my girlfriend is coming back from her trip; I can’t have this furry Bitch in my house anymore”. It was then that she got transferred into the arms of MY friend. Months later, she was finally back at home with me.

Thank god for the comradery among good people, who kept her safe; she could have ended up getting lost, wandering the streets or being sold to slavery. The brotherhood that took place in this story is heartwarming. Strangers came together to save a fur coat. I think she’s been through enough on that trip. Needless to say she’s back in the closet recuperating from all the excitement she endured. I’m sure she’ll forgive me for abandoning her like that by the time next season rolls around.